Michigan

Students suffer when teacher turnover removes experience from the classroom, and schools take a financial hit estimated at almost $59 million statewide from having to replace educators every year.
(File photo)

LANSING -- When a teacher leaves the classroom for good, it's an expensive proposition to not only fill the position but replace that experience. How expensive? As much as $59 million for Michigan schools.

The Alliance for Excellent Education calculated estimates of how much teacher attrition costs, and puts the total expense for Michigan's public schools somewhere between $27 and $59 million a year.

Those figures are based on the average costs for a not-poor, rural district and a low-income urban district to replace a teacher, multiplied by the estimated amount of turnover public school districts across the state experienced in 2008-2009.

The estimates were part of a report produced by the organization advocating for expanded training and preparation for new teachers.

"Teacher attrition hits states and school districts in the wallet, but students and teachers pay the real price," Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, said in a statement announcing the report.

To reduce attrition and keep teachers in the classroom for longer, the group argues, states should expand mentoring programs to give young educators additional support and guidance through their first few years of teaching.

The report also calls for frequent evaluations of teacher performance to provide positive feedback and develop a teacher's skills, as well as including analysis and improvement of teaching conditions when developing school improvement plans at the local and state level.

Nationally, the report estimates teacher attrition costs between $1 and $2 billion annually, with almost 330,000 teachers leaving the profession.